The Dominican University baseball team split a doubleheader with the Marian University Sabres to open Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) play on Saturday afternoon. The Stars fell to the Sabres 9-1 in game one before upending their NAC foe 7-3 in game two.

The Stars took a 1-0 lead in game one after Chad Polak (Westchester, Ill.) drew a walk to leadoff the bottom of the fourth with a walk and then went first to third one out later on a ball hit between third and short.  Polak then scored on a sacrifice fly by Chris Anderson (Plainfield, Ill.).

The Sabres responded with a pair runs in the top of the fifth to take a 2-1 advantage. The Sabres loaded the bases with nobody out in the inning, but managed just two runs as left-hander Zach Roszak (South Chicago, Ill.) minimized damage with a 6-4-3 double play.

The Sabres added runs in the sixth and seventh before a five-run ninth sealed the victory.

Roszak fell to 1-3, surrendering six earned runs on 12 hits and one walk in eight-plus innings of work.

In game two, it was a five-run second inning that staked right-hander Matt Dehn to a 5-0 lead en route to his first victory of the season. Dehn pitched around 11 hits and two walks, surrendering just three runs in seven-plus innings while striking out two.

Offensively, the Stars took advantage of three errors by the Sabres, scoring four unearned runs. Dominican managed just five hits in the ballgame, two from senior Jesse Bongartz (Peoria, Ill.) who went 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored while hitting in the seven-hole.

The Stars now stand at 4-13 on the season and 1-1 in the NAC. Dominican will travel to Milwaukee, Wis., on Sunday for a 1:00 PM doubleheader with the Wisconsin Lutheran College Warriors.